Yours truly was shocked, along with the rest of the hockey world to find out that shorty before noon on Tuedsay, Canadiens GM Bob Gainey dealt his starter Cristobal Huet to the Washington Capitals, and for a mere 2nd rounder in 2009.

“Je ne vais jamais oublier mes 3 années ici” - I will never forget my 3 seasons here…one of the many heartbreaking quotes a devastated Cristobal Huet gave during his press conference in Montreal after being traded to Washington 2 days ago.

Ken, over at Japers’ Rink, was kind enough to ask for my opinion the deal, and it may be a little subjective, but here you go:

Cristobal Huet is a fine person, a fine netminder and a fine team player. Unloading him for a late 2nd rounder in 2009 on the brink of possibly the team’s best run since they won the Cup in 1993 makes no sense to me.

Carey Price will one day be a great goaltender, so will Jaroslav Halak. Putting the season, the playoffs and your team’s success on the shoulder of two goaltenders that haven’t even combined for 50 NHL games let alone 0 playoff games is foolish and risky.

Huet will help a struggling Washington climb to win the division, and I hope Cristo all the best; he was a personal favourite and certainly well liked by the fans, the media and his teammates. The message he left on the locker room whiteboard was heartbreaking.

Only time will tell if Bob Gainey made the right move, but as it stands, he did not.

The message Huet left? Nobody knows word for word, but Chris Higgins and Saku Koivu were both sad when interviewed about it, Higgins said he wished them the best of luck and that he was honoured to have been their teammates, something along those lines.

Price said he lost a big brother, and Koivu said he lost a friend.

This move was a headscratcher and I am growing tired of Gainey as a GM. He never made any great moves, in fact, what he’s probably done more than anything is disappoint us. This year he didn’t disappoint, he let us down…he’s lucky we have Trever Timmins doing a fantastic job as a head scout, otherwise, he’d be out of a job by now.

I don’t hate Gainey for yesterday, but I am not the first to pop up and defend his bonehead moves (such as the Ribeiro trade, and even worse now, the Huet trade).

George McPhee flat out stole Huet and now I’m confident you guys will have a menacing team heading into the playoffs.

And finally, a little still picture tribute I made for my favourite player yesterday morning:

“The classiest gentleman I’ve met in the past 10 years” -Jacques Demers, RDS analyst, Stanley Cup winner coach in 1993 with the Canadiens.

Happy trails, I will miss the HUET HUET HUET chants before every opening faceoff and great save.
I will miss your exceptional attitude, your class, your solid goaltending, night in and night out, your name announced by Michel Lacroix before the national anthems, and last but not least, I will miss you Cristobal, and the 110% you gave each and every game.

Underappreciated in his time in Montreal, I hope he will flourish in Washington, au revoir!

-Steve (BBeR)